UAS Technikum Wien Workshop at Voestalpine-Böhler: Apprentices Build Digital Mini Factory
22 August, 2022
As part of a workshop, a team from the Digital Manufacturing, Automation & Robotics competence field at the UAS Technikum Wien provided apprentices at the steel construction company Voestalpine-Böhler with know-how on mechatronics, digitization and Industry 4.0. The young people designed and built a digital miniature factory during the project week.
Teaching apprentices at a steel construction company about digitalization and Industry 4.0, as well as how to work with mechatronic systems – that was the goal of a workshop held by a team from the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien at Voestalpine-Böhler in Styria in July.
Since 2017, the Digital Manufacturing, Automation & Robotics competence field of the Industrial Engineering Department has held two training weeks for apprentices at the company’s training center in Kapfenberg every summer. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the event, which was attended by a total of around 60 participants, was able to take place again.
As part of the project days, the apprentices built their own digital miniature factory and received insights from Technikum experts into thematically relevant subject areas such as sensors, actuators, robotics, augmented reality, Industry 4.0 and programming.
The participants were divided into teams to design the digital learning factory. Their task was to plan and construct part of a picking and packaging system for various components of a wooden cell phone stand. The components of the cell phone stand were pre-produced at the university of applied sciences and made available to the apprentices for the project.
“The young people first independently developed a concept for their part of the system and then also built the miniature factory themselves from scratch,” explains project manager Lucas Muster from the Digital Manufacturing, Automation & Robotics competence field. The Technikum team supported the teams with technical questions and with the practical implementation of their concepts. One challenge for the young people was to coordinate the processes and the interaction of the individual stations. Therefore, not only technical skills were required for the assembly, but also cross-team cooperation. At the end of the project weeks, the apprentices then presented their self-made packaging system in live operation in front of an audience.
